


Bello mio

by Okumen



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Idiots in Love, Languages and Linguistics, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 06:03:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13851627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Okumen/pseuds/Okumen
Summary: Lotor is not very good at Italian, so it would help if Mattdidn’tspeak it to him, because she is not a quiznaking Italian-Galran dictionary.Or, when you’re centuries upon centuries old and still have to ask a fifteen year old child advice on how to flirt.





	Bello mio

**Author's Note:**

>   * I just wanted to write something soft and dumb with some foreign language in it.
>   * Bello mio is Italian, and means _my beauty_.
>   * Other Italian words and phrases appear in this, and if they're not translated in the fic itself, you'll find them at the end notes. 
> 


“Green paladin.”

Pidge looked up from the screens shining blue into her face, eyeing Lotor with suspicion. He had been around a while and all now and his information always paid off this far but she didn’t trust him just yet. She still thought he was shady as quiznak.

“Just Pidge is fine. What’s up?”

Lotor paused for a moment, which made her wonder if he didn’t get the slang — Coran and Allura didn’t always get Earth slang either; but on the other hand he spent a fair amount of time around her brother so maybe it was something else — but then he seemed to decide that it wasn’t important. “I need to ask you something.” She raised an eyebrow at him, and when he added, “About Matthew,” she sighed. “Alright, what’d he do this time?” Her brother was a moron. She loved him for it and despite it, but he was still a moron.

He frowned down at her. “He didn’t do anything. However,” Lotor sighed. The frustrated sigh of someone who didn’t really know how to deal with a situation at hand, and was irritated by it. Was that situation whatever Matt had done (or what he had, apparently, not-done) or that he had to ask her about it? “he did say something that was quite….peculiar. I thought that perhaps you would be able to enlighten me.”

“Oh yeah? He can say a lot of peculiar things, what’d he say?”

Lotor’s frown deepened into a scowl of concentration. “Lutchi de miokki, fiorel-lo mey-oh.”

“.....What?” Pidge did not understand a word of what Lotor had just said. “He said that?”

“Something similar, at least.”

“Try that again?”

Lotor obliged, not altering the pronunciation by much but clearly trying to get it right.

She squinted at him, trying to process what Lotor had just said. Tried to say. It took several moments, because his pronunciation was… Well, _not very good_ — actually it was _terrible_ — and she didn’t initially understand that he had tried to speak Italian; but eventually her face smoothed out, when she came to the realization. “Do you mean, ‘Luce dei miei occhi, fiorello mio’?” She could not avoid the disbelief in her voice. Maybe not entirely because it was unbelievable that Matt might say something corny like that, but... Lotor’s scowl shifted into something akin to recognition. “Yes, I believe that it was something like that.”

“Okay, so, first off, that’s Italian, a language from our planet, secondly, your pronunciation is _terrible_.” Lotor looked both offended and resigned at that accusation. Like he didn’t want to admit to having terrible pronunciation but knowing that he couldn’t deny it. “ _Anyway_ , it means ‘light of my eyes, my little flower’, and sure I know you’re making out a lot but that’s _really_ affectionate——wow, your Altean markings are glowing like crazy, I didn’t know that they did that all randomly.”

Lotor cleared his throat, and rubbed his hand over his mouth. His glowing marks fluctuated in intensity from nearly invisible to almost blindingly bright. He practically oozed awkwardness, which was both interesting and new. “Ah, well, that is-...” He seemed to have entirely lost his composure. “How do I respond to that?”

For several moments, Pidge just looked at Lotor, with further disbelief. “Are you seriously asking me to help you flirt with my brother right now?” It was almost funny, the way the marks under his eyes was behaving, and the way he seemed so bad at flirting that he needed _her_ help. “You _really_ like him, huh?” Woah, that was a lot of intense light. She had to squint to see anything at all. “How do you want to respond? I could teach you some Italian,” after all, she had heard her fair share of Italian endearments and proclamations from her parents and grandparents while she grew up, “but if I do—” she emphasized how serious she was by jabbing a finger his direction; he blinked at her, clearly taken aback at her fierce tone of voice, “—you better be ready to practice your horrible pronunciation really quiznaking hard.”

“Ye-yes, understood.”

* * *

Lotor found Matt tinkering with a small fighter claimed from the Galra in a recent battle. He wasn’t entirely clear on what it was Matt intended to do, but he would learn eventually; Matt was all too eager to talk at lengths about the things that he was passionate about——and that was one of the things that had initially drawn Lotor toward him. “Matthew, do you have a moment to spare?”

Matt looked up and to the side, over at Lotor, and he grinned one of his ridiculous grins. “Yeah, sure, what’s up, Lotor?” Lotor had thought it before but not only did the green pala—Pidge, resemble each other in appearance and personality traits, but also in vocabulary.

“What you said earlier,” Lotor leaned against the side of the ship, too embarrassed to look Matt in the eye. He heard the rustle of fabric and the lack of sound of tools, and knew that he had all of Matt’s attention directed toward him. Lotor paused for a long time, to make sure that he got the words that he had been taught right. Words that, as far as he knew might not have any real counterparts or regular use in the Galran language, because he had never heard any words of love directed toward him and thus didn’t know how to express his feelings; he was thankful for Pidge for teaching him their words. Saying them in a language that meant something to the person who meant something — so much — to him felt...meaningful. He spoke slowly, and deliberately, and he could feel his cheeks burn. “Ne-... Nessuno è come te, mi hai cambiato la vita.” While he spoke, he chanced a quick glance Matt’s way, and he stumbled on the continuation when he saw the intensity in the amazement and fondness on Matt’s face. He quickly averted his gaze, and even he could see how his Altean markings glowed. “S-sono— abbagliato da te, ti-... ti amo…”

Lotor fell silent, utterly embarrassed and uncertain of what he was supposed to do now. He was completely out of his element and comfort zone, but if he set his mind to something he intended to follow through. And this past week Pidge had drilled him on Italian pronunciation until she was pleased, and he didn’t want to waste the knowledge. But the words were true, every single one of them, even if no Galran would use them. Alteans, perhaps, but... He didn’t know. He flinched in surprise when Matt stepped up in front of him; not paying attention like this could be dangerous, and yet he had let his guard down. Again. Matt had the ability of making him do so. “Bello mio,” Matt said smoothly — smoother than Lotor, at least — and this time Lotor actually understood what he was saying, thanks to Pidge’s tutoring. _My beauty._ “Anch’io.” _Me too_. Lotor glanced down at the hands that slipped onto his waist, calloused and warm and safe. “Voglio passare il resto della mio vita con te.”

“....I don’t know that one.” _Vita_ , he understood, and _mio_ , but _my life_ was not all that Matt had said.

“It means, I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

Lotor recoiled, but since he was leaning against the ship, it only resulted in him bumping the back of his head and an elbow into it. Matt cupped his cheek, brushed a thumb against his marking, and the light flickered over Matt’s face. “Sorry. I know it’s a sensitive subject.” Because he knew that Lotor didn’t know his own lifespan, as a rare mix of of Galra and Altean, and because Matt’s lifespan was very, very limited in comparison to what Lotor had already had. Then there were other reasons, too. Matt rose on his toes to press a kiss to Lotor’s forehead. “But, cuore mio, I do mean it.”

With an uncertain sigh, Lotor leaned against Matt’s shoulder. _My heart?_ That was embarrassing, and he didn’t understand why, but he felt warmth at the truth he heard in Matt’s voice. “Don’t call me those things in front of other people,” he still said. Same as he didn’t feel ready to do public displays of affections, be it physical or verbal in languages he actually understood. They had been walked in one multiple times, certainly, and Pidge in particular was aware—and if she hadn’t been so before….

“But in private I can call you things like amore mio, and dolcezza?” Matt pressed a kiss close to Lotor’s ear, strands of hair catching between their skin. “Hm, fiorello mio?” Lotor turned his head, pressed his lips and nose to Matt’s throat, then pulled his face from the crook of Matt’s neck so he could kiss him properly. “You may call me such things, in private, yes, um, caro mio.”

Matt planted a couple soft, quick pecks against Lotor’s lips, a gentle smile on his face. “I really like when you speak Italian. Your pronunciation is top-notch.” Lotor snorted, a smirk making its way onto his face. “Your sister would not let me speak it to you any other way.” Matt laughed. “Yeah, she’s stubborn like that. Worth it?” Lotor, who had temporarily found his composure, was not letting the look of confidence fall off his face yet. He wrapped his arms around Matt’s waist, pulled him closer, kissed him again. “Oh yes, definitely worth it.”

**Author's Note:**

> Lotor is so not smooth at the flirting. And wasting knowledge? This nerd? Nope. Matt is only better at flirting this time because he knows what he’s saying. Lotor’s altean markings glowing when he blushes is a nice idea I saw someone mention on tumblr.
> 
>   * Nessuno è come te. = No one is like you.
>   * Mi hai cambiato la vita. = You changed my life.
>   * Sono abbagliato da te. = I'm dazzled by you.
>   * Ti amo = I love you (romantically).
>   * Amore mio = My love.
>   * Dolcezza = Sweetheart.
> 



End file.
